One of the most common questions people ask us is “Which WordPress web host should I use?,” and one of our most popular answers is SiteGround. This particular web host has plenty of positives. Still, it’s important you understand why it’s recommend by so many before you make a commitment.
Right off the bat, we can tell you that a lot of SiteGround’s appeal has to do with its great performance and competitive pricing. Throughout this review, we’ll cover SiteGround’s features, its support system, then discuss pricing.
Let’s get to it!
An Introduction to SiteGround
SiteGround is a hosting provider that offers a lot of WordPress-specific plans, although they don’t solely cater to the platform. They’ve made a name for themselves thanks to a combination of low prices and managed hosting features, which isn’t something you see often. Plus, they’re one of a handful of web hosts recommended on WordPress.org.
As far as their plans go, they don’t skimp on features either. If you go beyond their basic WordPress tier, you see a lot of functionality you’d only expect to find with more expensive hosting providers. What’s more, SiteGround always comes out near the top of hosting service performance comparisons. As you know, ensuring your site runs fast is key to a great user experience, so that’s one plus point for SiteGround.
For now, we’ll give you a very quick overview of the features SiteGround offers and its prices. Then we’ll dig deeper throughout the next few sections.
Key Features:
- Automatic WordPress setup.
- Access to a migration plugin and professional help from plans GrowBig and onwards.
- Free integration with Cloudflare’s Content Delivery Network (CDN).
- Secure Shell (SSH) access, WP-CLI support, and PHP version control.
- Access to Git for WordPress (only for GoGeek users).
- Staging functionality (for GrowBig and GoGeek users).
- Free daily backups.
Pricing: SiteGround plans start at $3.95 per month, billed yearly | More Information
What Makes SiteGround’s WordPress Plans Different?
SiteGround offers three WordPress-specific plans: StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek. Each plan is a bit more expensive than the last, which is (of course) the norm, and we’ll discuss prices later. In the last section, we gave you a quick breakdown of what kind of features SiteGround offers. However, you may have noticed most of the advanced functionality in the list is limited to the GrowBig and GoGeek plans.
The StartUp plan, on the other hand, is targeted towards users who want to get a single website up and running, without needing advanced managed hosting functionality. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad choice, though – with the StartUp plan, you still get one-click WordPress setup, help setting up a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, CDN integration, and SSH access.
It’s not a bad package at all for a price that puts the StartUp plan in the tier of ‘bargain’ WordPress hosting options. However, where SiteGround really shines is when you move onto higher tiers.
With GrowBig you get to host unlimited websites, free migration, access to a professional caching tool, on-demand backups, and staging functionality. We’re big fans of staging sites, so this feature alone would justify the small difference in cost between the Startup and GrowBig plans for us.
Finally, we have the GoGeek plan, which offers improved server performance, priority support, a PCI-compliant setup, and Git for WordPress. It’s definitely a good option if you’re going to host an e-commerce store, or just want top-of-the-line performance.
The sweet spot though is the GrowBig plan, since it supports both unlimited websites and staging functionality. More importantly, the full set of features and performance it offers puts it into direct competition with more expensive managed WordPress hosts, such as Flywheel and WP Engine.
A Quick Look at SiteGround’s Customer Support
Often, budget web hosting providers cut corners when it comes to their customer support system. They take a long time to reply to tickets, hire people who don’t know the first thing about troubleshooting WordPress, and many more ways of shaving off the internal cost.
However, we believe SiteGround doesn’t fall into that category. They offer customer support via live chat, email, and phone. Waiting times tend to be quite short, and their support staff are usually able to take care of whatever issue you have.
You don’t have to take our word alone for it, though. If you look around the web, you’ll find plenty of independent SiteGround reviews. HostingAdvice, for example, has hundreds of user reviews for SiteGround and they have a perfect score when it comes to reliability and support.
How SiteGround’s Pricing Compares to Other Hosts
Finally, it’s time to talk about pricing. Low-cost hosting plans are part of SiteGround’s appeal, but as we mentioned before, they don’t offer month-to-month payment options. This means you need to pay upfront for a whole year, no matter which plan you sign up for:
To give you an idea, that’d mean spending $47.40 upfront for a year of the StartUp plan. When you move to GrowBig, the figure swells to $71.40. Moreover, SiteGround doesn’t offer discounts if you choose to pay for two or three years up-front. Nor do they include a free domain with your subscription, which translates to roughly around $10 more up front for a .com TLD:
If you only want to host a single website, the StartUp plan can be a bargain. However, do keep in mind it doesn’t offer access to some of SiteGround’s coolest features, including staging websites and their premium caching tool.
In our opinion, SiteGround’s best offer is their GrowBig plan. To sign up, you’ll need to pay a bit over $20 more than for the StartUp tier. However, the cost is quickly offset if you want to set up multiple websites.
Conclusion
As far as WordPress web hosts go, SiteGround checks many of the boxes people want. It offers great performance, a lot of helpful WordPress-specific features, an excellent support team, and good prices.
Keep in mind, though – SiteGround doesn’t offer per-month payment options. This means you’ll need to sign up for at least one-year of service, for any of its WordPress plans. However, its prices are so competitive that you get a quality of service you often only see in more expensive web hosts, so it’s a great option for WordPress users.
Do you have any questions about using SiteGround to host WordPress websites? Ask away in the comments section below!
Article image thumbnail by Alone Syplyak / shutterstock.com
The post SiteGround WordPress Hosting: An Overview and Review appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.
